One of those popular forwards tends to come under the title of
Word Fun or something similar -- it's even shown up on
the blue; one of the facts on the list states:
The title of the film EFIK MOVY was written abcdEFghIjKlMnOpqrstuVwxYz to show the alphabetical-order property.
I also remember seeing this in at least one of those trivia books -- so I don't think this is something that just dates from the internet. However -- if one does a search for "EFIK MOVY" on Google the
only results are copies of the list of trivia. If you search on the IMDB, all you get is
this guy, who apparently worked on
Pirates of the Carribean (but not
EFIK MOVY). So, basically -- what's the deal? Does this film exist? If it does exist, what is it about? Who made it? Does anyone know any information about it (or better yet, seen it)?
As far as I can tell, the possibilities are:
A) The film does exist, was actually a studio picture, but just forgotten.
(Likelyhood: Probably not likely. If this were the case, you'd assume that someone even marginally famous would have been involved -- even if someone on a low level of fame, like, say, sub-Joe Don Baker -- and that it'd be in the IMDB or someone would have made a blog post "Hey, remember that dog
EFIK MOVY?" or something. And I find it hard to believe that while there are films that aren't in the IMDB, a movie put out by, say, Warner Brothers would be in that pile.)
B) The film does exist, but it was a small indie picture or a student film.
(Likelyhood: Possible and feasible. There's a lot of really small pictures that aren't in the IMDB, and they state outright that they don't include student films unless there's a reason to -- like they were made by a director who would go on to be famous, or star a well known actor -- and 99.9% of student films don't fit those criteria. If it's a small indie film, you'd probably expect to see a blog post or something mentioning the film, but maybe not; if it was a student film, even if people had seen it, there probably wouldn't be a mention of it blog-post-wise. Also, assuming that the "abcdEFghIjK..." thing was on posters and well, student films frequently have homemade poster/flyers posted (typically on campus) that might have given birth to this bit o' trivia.)
C) The film simply doesn't exist and was made up for the list.
(Likelyhood: Reasonably likely. It'd explain why there's no mention of it outside of these lists, but it seems like an awfully weird thing to make up. Granted, "lists of weird facts" aren't typically a bastion of Research and Truth. For example, spot checking one of the offered Facts: the list offers an explanation for the "There are three words that end in -gry, two of them are "angry and hungry", what is the third word in the English Language" without making any reference to the joke/brainteaser aspect of that one[1]. On the other hand, spot checking another fact, the
Merriam-Webster online dictionary seems to bear out the explaination of the entemology of "Coach". So perhaps this list is reliable? Or, perhaps --
EFIK MOVY was made up as a copyright trap -- sort of like fake streets on maps that map-makers use to see if other companies are filching their designs; maybe the original book this came from slotted
EFIK MOVY in as a "Fake Street"? Just a few possibilities for why someone'd make it up...)
So, anyway, though -- does anyone know for sure, and if so, does anyone have any information on it? This has been eating at me for years and no one I've asked has known anything about the film. Is it real? Is it a myth? Is it an art film that causes the viewer to watch it over and over until they starve to death from a lack of desire to do anything at all but watch it? For asking about it, will I get a copy in the mail labelled with nothing but a smiley face?
What
IS it?!
[1] The answer is "language" -- it's a joke based on misdirection; sort of like "You're a bus driver. On the first stop 2 people get on, on the second 1 gets off and 5 get on, on the third 4 get off, 2 get on and one guy hops off but hops back on, and this pattern continues for 10 more stops. Given all this information, what color are the bus driver's eyes?" Just to prevent a derail, anyway.
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posted by cortex at 5:20 PM on July 21, 2005